24.7 km today.
2.6 km/h average today.
9 hours 25 mins walking time.
153.7 km this trip.
542.8 km from start.
0 metres minimum height.
98 metres maximum height.
107 metres ascent.
133 metres descent.
Track Log: Logged.
Travel: Bus.
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2005-04-04-Conil-to-Barbate.kml
2005-04-04-Conil-to-Barbate.gpx
Mostly beach.
Conil de la Frontera to Barbate. Apart from the short urban stretches to the bus stations, the whole route was along sandy beaches and through pine woods. The last section was through a wonderful nature reserve. A strong east wind was a bit of a problem.
It is 9.30 and we are having our first elevenses on the beach below Conil. We had a bit of trouble at the bus station cossack as there was a girl in front of me having a long private natter to the girl at the cossack. No sooner had she gone than the bus arrived and Neil called me. As I turned round, an old gaffer stepped in front of me and had a further long conversation in a doddery sort of way although at least his conversation was about travel arrangements and he's entitled to be doddery. In the end we aborted and got our tickets on the bus. The beach below Conil is a lovely land and there are some cow pats here so we have to make sure we don't lose our caps.
10.10 and we reach the first conurbation (El Palmar). There is a pool there with a great white heron feeding in it and wading. Half way between here and Conil we passed a tower.
5.9km out we get to a second tower (short and fat) and a conurbation. We can see another tall thin tower ahead. We think there is a pecuaria alongside the beach but the beach is nice so we're on it.
We are now at Torre Nueva. We've done 9.3km and we're having lunch by a little lagoa but no nogs.
There's another huge torre ahead of us. It's the lighthouse at Cabo de Trafalgar. Huh where we win battles.
I sing a verse of Rule Britannia - not that I am jingoistic in any way. Mention the IEDPE conference where rooms were named after various places of significance. Luckily the group led by a Frenchman was sent to the Waterloo Room. Was there a Trafalgar room I wonder, where the group led by a Spaniard could have been sent? Huh we won.
There is a protest notice saying "No a Parque Eolico en el mar de Trafalgar".
The carril de bicicletas is still going on but we're staying on the beach. Inland from here, the beach is replaced directly by meadows a bit like the eel's foot meadows (Minsmere, Suffolk, UK) just cropped short and green. Behind are green rolling hills very different from what we have seen before in Spain.
Our next stop will be at Cape Trafalgar. Punto de Trafalgar.
I found some waterproof trousers the other day just like the ones I lost in Sagres about 20 years ago by sitting on them and then walking away without them.
The beach has got rain marks on it so yesterday It must have rained here when it was dry where we were.
12.30 we've gone off the beach onto a path in order to bypass the Punto de Trafalgar. The wind is getting up a bit. We've got a new flower which is a herrinbole blue on a spike like a delphinium but the flowers aren't so lush as on a delphinium,and with shiny pointy leaves.
This stretch was prerking because there were lots of marismas and we had to keep going round them. We hoped there weren't quicksands. All we got for the stop was a dried date and between here and Barbate which we thought might be a beach is actually a pummock - our first for a long time and we'll have to go over it.
The nearest place to us now is Vejer and the second nearest is Barbate and the third nearest is Conil so we are more than half way. 9.6km to go and we've already done 13km.
It's 2.30 and we are in El Canyo. Neil is changing his piles (In many lands a battery is called a pile). There are two nice beaches here but we are going to go up the pummock. Neil says when we've done the pummock we can have another lunch.
We're going to do the Alcantilado de Barbate through the Parque Natural de la Brenya and we are now in Los Conyos de Meca. Our woo follows the cliff top. We hope it isn't too stoop.
We find pink bunny flowers maximus in the woods.
We meet someone picking asparagus for their supper. They seem, to find it mostly near the trunks of trees.
We see brown hyacinth, dipcadi, serotinum (not a belvardia as I had thought). Neil's mustang is covered in formicas where he put it down. Usually that does happen, but this holiday he has done rather better.
We are having our 50 minute stop near the Torre del Almedro and in here we have found our first orchid a little pink-purple bee type and also some tiny sillas, a carpet of them. It's 16.30 and 5km to go and then we have to find the bus station giving us two and a quarter hours to get there and find it. Even we should make it.
We get to the Torre del Tajo. There are holes up the tower where you can let your hair down from. It was a vigilance tower to prevent Turko-Berber pirate invasions in the 16th century. It's 13m high.
16.50 We've also now seen a brown orchid and we've just seen Barbate harbour ahead of us. It looks from here as though there is a sandy way through for tomorrow but it remains to be seen whether we get through or not as there is no way on the map and previously that has meant military bases.
We see arenaria, small alyssum, honey worts, small white cistus and yellow rock rose.
17.30 We get to the bus station and buy our tickets. A nice lady in an ice cream kiosk told us how to get there. But she had run out of ice creams so we couldn't buy one from her. We have got our tickets and crossed over the road to put on our legs and have a different ice cream to fill in the time. We sit outside and provide entertainment for two ladies sitting inside in window seats. Not so surprising for them now as when I did the same with my first pair of convertibles years ago in Greece.
24.9km altogether. The kiosk man here is excellent. He helps the drivers park and manoeuvre their buses. He lets you know when the bus has come and shows you where to get on it. - a bit different from Chiclana.
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